"r A. 93.e. 



FORBES LIBRARY 



NORTHAMPTON 



MASS. 




Class _ 
Book. 






^"^^7,^n 





MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 




ON THE 




_^IFE AND ChAI^CTEP^ 
J J 

OF 




Garrett Davis, 




(A SENATOR FROM KENTUCKY,) 




DELIVERED IN THE 




Senate and Wouse of Representatives, 




FORTY-SECOND CONGRESS, THIRD SESSION, 




December x8.. 1.872. 


u. 

If 


^ . V . 




PL^BLISHEU HV ORDER OK CONGRESS. 




WASHINGTON: ' ' ■ '■.•'',■ ^ V; '^'-'S ', ! 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1873- 



■3 ^7 Us 



V 






^ 



GARRETT DAVIS. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 



Remarks by /W.r. Stevenson, of JCentucky. 

Mr. President: I rise to announce an event which will be received 
by the Senate, I am sure, with profound regret and the sincerest sorrow. 

Hon. Garrett Davis, late a Senator from the Commonwealth of 
Kentucky, in the Congress of the United States, is no more ! Upon 
the 22d of September last, at his own home near Paris, Kentucky, he 
passed quietly away, cheered by the presence of his sorrowing children 
and surrounded by devoted personal friends. 

It is sad to realize that his long life of faithful public service is 
ended. We grieve that those earnest, fearless utterances in the sup- 
port of whatever he deemed right, those fierce and impassioned de- 
nunciations of whatever he believed to be wrong, so often heard in 
this Chamber, .are hushed forever. 

Although the rapidly declining health of the departed Senator dur- 
ing our last session rendered the sad event which we are now called 
upon to deplore not improbable, still every heart in the Chamber is 
deeply touched by its reality. Full of years and full of honors, Gar- 
rett Davis has passed away. All that is left to us is the memory of 
his virtues and the remembrance of his exalted patriotism. 

This is not the place, nor the present the time, for any eulogium or 
lengthened sketch of the life and public services of my late colleague 
and friend. And yet, Mr. President, my sad trust would seem to me 



l) 



REMARKS BY MR. STEVENSON ON THE 



but half discharged, were I to omit all reference to some of the salient 
and striking traits which marked his life. 

Garrett Davis was a native of Kentucky. He was born in Mount 
Sterling on the loth of September, 1801. His father and mother 
emigrated from Montgomery County, Maryland, to the county of the 
same name in Kentucky. His mother was a Miss Garrett, a family 
still well and widely known in Maryland, and it was from his mother's 
family that he derived his own baptismal name. His father was a 
man of marked character. To energy and industry, he added strong 
will and great personal popularity. He was for many years the 
sheriff of his adopted county, and represented it several times in the 
lower branch of the General Assembly of Kentucky. The strongly 
marked character of the parents was deeply impressed upon their 
children. Mr. Davis was one of three brothers. The brilliant talents 
of two of them, Amos and Singleton Davis, long since dead, are still 
remembered in Kentucky, while the long and distinguished public 
service of him whom we to-day mourn, is imperishably interwoven 
with the public annals of an entire country. 

Mr. Davis enjoyed the advantages of what we know in Kentucky 
as a common country school. At the early period when his father 
left Maryland to find a new home in the wild and sparsely settled 
portion of Kentucky where he settled, the means of instruction were 
extremely limited. Mr. Davis applied himself diligendy, and soon 
acquired a good English education, with some knowledge of the Latin 
and Greek languages. At an early age he-determined to study law. 
With a view of practical knowledge he sought employment as a 
deputy in the circuit court clerk's office of Montgomery County. In 
1823 he removed to Bourbon County, where he continued to prose- 
cute his legal studies, and at the same time to write in the circuit 
court clerk's office of that county. About the year 1S24 he com- 
menced the practice of his profession at Paris, and to it he conse- 
crated the earlier years of life with enthusiastic devotion. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. 



In 1825 he married the daughter of Robert Trimble, a distin- 
guished jurist, who became subsequently a judge of the Supreme 
Court of the United States. This accomplished woman died in 
Washington in 1S42, leaving a son and two daughters, who survive 
their father. In 1845 Mr. Davis married the widow of Thomas 
Elliott, a prominent lawyer at the Paris bar. She died in October, 
1 868, leaving one son, who is living. 

Mr. Davis was indefatigable and laborious in his legal studies. 
"Such industry produced its fruits." His business increased, and he 
rapidly rose to a high position at a bar which then numbered some 
of the most prominent lawyers in the Commonwealth. He regarded 
the law as the noblest science of intellectual triumph. He loved the 
administration of justice. It challenged his admiration and stimulated 
his professional aspirations. All who have encountered him as an 
opponent in the trial of an important cause, as it has been my experi- 
ence occasionally to have done, will bear willing testimony to his high 
([ualities as an able and strong lawyer. His last argument but one 
in the Supreme Court of the United States, in the reported case of 
Missouri vs. Kentucky, is a lasting memorial of his legal learning and 
professional power. Had his whole life been devoted exclusively to 
professional labor, none who knew him could doubt, that he would 
have reached the summit of professional eminence, and have become 
an acknowledged leader before any court. 

Mr. Davis took an active and prominent part in the political con- 
tests of Kentucky from his earliest manhood. Always an ardent 
Whig, and frequently the selected standard-bearer of his party in its 
most excited struggles, his clarion voice rang throughout the Com- 
monwealth in defense of the principles of that patriotic and gallant 
organization. He was the trusted and tried friend of Henry Clay, 
and enjoyed, to a pre-eminent degree, his confidence and regard. 

He represented Bourbon County in the lower branch of the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Kentucky for many years. Always conservative in 



O REMARKS BY MR. STEVENSON ON THE 

his views, he took a prominent and successful part in shaping the 
legislation of the State. For eight consecutive years, he was chosen 
over able and distinguished competitors, by the electors of the Ash- 
land district, their representative to the House of Representatives of 
the United States, and then voluntarily retired. The debates in that 
body during that period attest his power and strength as a ready and 
skillful debater. 

He was nominated as lieutenant-governor on the gubernatorial 
ticket with John J. Crittenden, but at his earnest request was excused 
by the convention. 

In 1861, amid perils and dangers of a revolutionary struggle, he 
was elected as an old-line Union Whig, to succeed John C. Breck- 
inridge in the Senate of the United States. He was the strong op- 
ponent of secession, and was at the period of his election an earnest 
advocate for the rigid prosecution of the war to restore the Union. 

In 1867 he was re-elected to the Senate, a proud tribute to his 
fidelity and zeal in upholding the honor and guarding the interests of 
his State. Had he lived, his senatorial term would have expired on 
the 3d of March, 1873. 

Mr. Davis and myself, until some time after the commencement of 
the late war, had been always political opponents. We had both 
been reared in opposing political schools, and differed widely in our 
views as to the powers and policy of the Federal Government. Still 
we were warm friends. I became associated with him in the public serv- 
ice for the first time in October, 1849. He, my present colleague, and 
myself met as members of the convention which framed and adopted 
the present constitution of Kentucky. It was at that period, in a 
daily intercourse of several months, that I formed an opinion of 
Garrett Davis which I have never had occasion to change. I 
thought then, as I think now, that he was a strong and in many re- 
spects a most remarkable man. His character was cast in a mould 
of striking antagonisms. Its strong element rested in that moral 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. 



power, which brought to its aid a concentrated will and a conscious 
rectitude that challenged and alike defied opposition. His heart knew 
no fear. Popular opinion had no terror for him in the advocacy of 
measures he believed to be right. 

I recall a striking incident: During the session of our constitutional 
convention, Mr. Davis, at that time a sincere advocate of the princi- 
ples of a then e.xisting political organization, known as the American 
party, introduced into that body a series of resolutions, proposing, by 
constitutional enactments, to exclude from the right to hold office, in 
the future, all Roman Catholics, and requiring on the part of all 
foreign-born citizens a residence of twenty-one years as a prerequi- 
site on their part to the enjoyment of the right of suffrage. 

The resolutions were opposed with singular i>nanimity by four- 
fifths of the convention, and by none more sternly than by myself 
1 know, or rather I have good reason to believe, that many party 
friends of Mr. Davis went to him privately and urged their with- 
drawal. They insisted that his a^dvocacy and vote for the proposed 
measures would not only lead to his downfall, but bring down the 
party with him. He replied, that he knew no party call when his 
duty commanded him to serve his State by the enactment of meas- 
ures he believed to be right. For several days he stood almost 
alone, as the earnest, bold, and fearless advocate of his resolutions, 
repelling every assault, and supporting them with a zeal I have rarely 
seen surpassed. Out of the body, composed of one hundred mem- 
bers, my recollection now is, that his proposition received, on the call 
of the ayes and noes, but seven votes besides his own. Still he be- 
lieved himself right, and his spirit never quailed before any majority. 

Senators, another high quality of the dead statesman was, his innate 
desire to be right in all that he said and in all that he did in this Cham- 
ber. Pride and self-consistency always gave way, by prompt acknowl- 
edgment, whenever he believed himself wrong in speech or vote. 

I have before me a striking illustration: On the i8th day of May, 



8 REMARKS BY MR. STEVENSON ON THE 

187 1, while we were discussing a violation of the rules of the 
Senate by an improper promulgation of the then recently negotiated 
treaty with Great Britain, Mr. Davis took an active part, as you all 
remember, in that debate. He made an able and lengthy speech 
on some of the questions involved. A few days afterward he came 
to my chair and said, "I wish to see you." We retired into the 
cloak-room, as I remember, when he said, " Do you think my argu- 
ment consistent and sound ?" I said, " I do not." Said he, " I do 
not, either." And what, sir, did he do? I read from the Globe 
what then occurred : 

"Mr. Davis, of Kentucky. Mr. President: In the remarks that I 
submitted to the Senate some time since, I assumed the position that 
if a Senator received from the State Department or from any other 
source a copy of the treaty, and after the Senate had received the 
treaty from the Executive, communicated that State Department 
copy, it would not be a violation of the secrecy of the Senate. I 
have further considered that position, and I am satisfied that it is 
erroneous, and I finally withdraw from it." {Congressional Globe, 
part 2, Forty -second Congress, first session, page 2>i(>i\ 

The traits in Mr. Davis's character made a strong impress on 
friends and foes alike. He was positive, bold, and impassioned. He 
could do nothing by halves. Often, very often, erroneous, he did in- 
justice occasionally both to friends and foes. He possessed, however, 
that higher, godlike attribute, a generous magnanimity to acknowledge 
his wrong and publicly to make a ready and prompt amende. 

Senators, for almost twelve years he was your constant associate 
in this Chamber. His service for a greater portion of that time was 
in a very small political minority. Constitutional questions, novel 
and startling in their character, deemed dangerous to constitutional 
liberty, have during his term been discussed and adopted. Was 
Garrett Davis ever silent when duty prompted him to speak? 
Did he ever quail before the power of an overwhelming political 
majority in this Senate-Chamber? Amid your bitterest party con- 



tests of the past, was his honest)' ever impeached, or his spotless 
purity of character ever questioned ? 

His bold and fearless denunciations of contemplated usurpations 
may have offended you; his constant and unceasing appeals to the 
Constitution may have wearied you; sharp and bitter words, uttered 
by him in the heat of debate, may have wounded you ; but is there 
one Senator in this Chamber who will not willingly, in despite of 
the past, say that Garrett Davis was a pure, fearless, honest 
patriot? What higher tribute could human ambition desire? What 
higher praise could human statesmanship deserve? 

My late honored and lamented colleague sleeps amid the blue- 
grass of his own native Commonwealth, in sight of his home, by the 
side of loved ones who have gone before him. Senators, soon, one 
by one, each of us will successively follow him through that dark 
valley through whose gloom he has now passed. 

Should not this impressive scene admonish us of our mortality? 
Shall it not check the acerbity of feeling which sometimes, amid the 
excitement of our debates, escapes us ? I trust it may awaken in the 
heart of each and all of us greater respect for those who feel them- 
selves constrained, upon public questions upon which we are called 
on to act, to differ from one another. Sad dispensations are 
hourly bringing their instructive lesson, that we must soon pass 
away. " The paths of glory lead but to the grave." No honors, no 
distinction, no wealth can stay the power of death. 

But yesterday, amid the excitement of an excited political presi- 
dential contest, the image of one man was before all eyes, and his 
name was lisped on every tongue. Full of hope, full of expectation, 
his heart beat high for presidential honors. Where is he now ? Like 
my departed colleague, he sleeps in a new-made grave, and all that 
was mortal of Horace Greeley mingles with its kindred dust. So it 
has been ; so it is ; so it will ever be, until the " sea and graves give 
up their dead." 



lO 



REMARKS BY MR. VICKERS ON THE 



But there is a brighter home beyond the grave, prepared and ready 
for all who trust in God, and who are willing to accept the mediation 
of His Son. There the loved ones who have passed over the river, 
shall be re-united in a communion never to be broken, and all that 
communion will be love. 

I beg leave, Mr. President, in conclusion, to offer the following 
resolutions : 

Resolved, That the Senate has learned with feelings of profound 
regret that Hon. Garrett D.wis, late a Senator in the Congress of 
the United States from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, departed 
this life at his residence near Paris, in that State, on 2 2d September, 
1872, during the recess of this body. 

Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Davis the country has lost a 
citizen eminent for his public and private virtues, a statesman of the 
purest patriotism, a Senator of ability and worth, and that his death 
is deplored by the whole country. 

Resolved, That, as a testimonial of our respect for the memory of 
the deceased, the members and officers of the Senate will wear the 
usual badge of mourning for thirty days. 

Resolved, That the proceedings of Congress upon the announce- 
ment of the death of Hon. Garrett Davis be communicated by the 
Secretary to the family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That, as a further mark of respect for the memory of the 
deceased, the Senate do now adjourn. 



Remarks by fk-R. yicKERS, of /Maryland. 

Mr. President: This occasion is one of melancholy interest to us, 
who in our feeble way attempt to pay the tribute of our homage to 
the character, worth, and services of a distinguished member of 
this body, who but recently graced one of our seats and held pleasant 
converse with us. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. I I 

When I entered the Senate, I met the friendly greeting of the sage 
of Kentucky, a gallant State, which he delighted to honor, and whose 
interest and fame it was his pleasure to protect and promote. I list- 
ened with growing interest to the debates of Senators, and especially 
to those of Hon. Garrett Davis, the contemporary and devoted friend 
of the immortal Clay. His long public service, dignified bearing, 
and venerable appearance attracted me, and impressed me with the 
opinion that he would have done honor to the Roman senate in 
the palmy days of that republic. To say that I lament his death is 
but faintly to express the emotions of my heart. We have lost a 
most illustrious and honorable member, a sincere friend, a sound 
lawyer, an able statesman, the courteous and accomplished gentle- 
man. 

For more than a year some of us thought that we perceived a 
degree of failing health and decline in our deceased associate. 
We watched the progress of time upon him with much feeling and 
anxiety. When violently attacked by disease, before the termination 
of the last session of the Senate, our fears were aroused for his safety, 
and we sought the morning reports of his condition with solicitude 
and hope. We rejoiced when he was able to return to his beloved 
State, and when we subsequently learned that the genial influences 
and associations of home and friends had restored him to much 
stronger and almost renewed health ; but when, in September, the 
telegraph informed us of his death, we were shocked at the announce- 
ment. Although we knew that the fatal messenger must at some 
period come to him, as he will soon appear to us, yet we hoped that 
his arrow would longer remain in his quiver and his visit be delayed. 

Mr. Davis was a true man, and a type of the nobler attributes of 
his race ; a link that bound the glories of the past of our country with 
the melancholy memories of the present. He was virtuous from a love 
of virtue, and, acting on the maxim that nothing was impossible 
to industry, he was always at the place of duty, which is the post of 



12 REMARKS BY MR. VICKERS ON THE 

honor. He attained his high distinctions in the service and councils 
of his country by the practice of the cardinal virtues, which consti- 
tute the road to elevation and to fame. 

"Honor is 
Virtue's allowed ascent : honor that clasps 
All perfect justice in her arms ; that craves 
No more respect than what she gives ; that does 
Nothing but what she'll suffer." 

In temperament he was quick, ardent, magnanimous ; sincere and 
frank in his professions, honest in his convictions, and uncompromis- 
ing in principle. He was made of the sterner stuff which forms the 
elements of character of the honest, the fearless, and the good. Duty 
was to him the sublimest and dearest object of life; all the aspirations 
of his heart and the severest study and labor of his life were to per- 
form his duty with ability and fidelity. It would have been as easy 
to retard the sun in its course, as to swerve him from the faithful dis- 
charge of his public trust. Neither flattery nor censure could affect 
him ; and he was insensible to fear, except that of a failure to serve 
his countrj' and her cause with the efficiency and success which he 
desired. Stern and inflexible in the pursuit and defense of what he 
believed to be right, he was untiring in his efforts to accomplish it. 
His health was no doubt impaired by his indefatigable habits of 
study and preparation for the weighty responsibilities of an American 
Senator. Office was no sinecure or place of ease to him, and his 
examples of diligence, toil, and perseverance merit our highest enco- 
mium and imitation. 

If there ever was a man devoted to the true principles of the Con- 
stitution and the rights of the citizen, he was that man. W'c all re- 
member with what fervency, with what physical and mental efforts he 
entered on that arena, and with what eloquence he stirred our souls 
and enlisted our feelings in the cause of constitutional liberty and 
the principles of republican government. He possessed the true 
principles of oratory; for, when imbued and agitated with a subject 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. 17 

and fired by its importance and objects, he spoke with impassioned 
force, kindling the powers of the mind and heart to a pathos, energy, 
and boldness which aroused and animated the feelings and admira- 
tion of his hearers. Some of his perorations were specimens of pure 
and enthusiastic eloquence that would honor any American forum. 
While he accorded all necessary powers to the Federal Government, 
he maintained with zeal the reserved rights of the States. He had 
read, studied, and observed much ; had mastered the legitimate ex- 
positions of the Constitution ; had drank deep at the fountain ; and 
if he had an idol upon earth, it was the Constitution as interpreted 
by the fathers and administered in its original spirit and purity. 

Mr. Davis had filled various places of trust in his native State be- 
fore he was introduced into the Halls of Congress: he had been 
elected four times to the House and twice to the Senate; he had ac- 
quired extensive experience in public afiairs and the legislation of his 
country, which was aided by his practice as an able attorney in the 
State and Federal courts. 

Aristides was not more just, nor governed by more lofty views of 
moral rectitude. He was frank and firm in what he believed to be 

right, and would not 

" Have flattered Neptune for his trident, 
Or Jove for his power to thunder." 

I once spoke to him about the probable animadversions of the 
press upon a speech which he had made, when he replied, substan- 
tially, that he cared not for publications, as he had determined to do 
his duty irrespective of censure or applause — a noble sentiment, 
worthy of the most eminent patriotism, and which could only come 
from the most exalted sense of conscious integrity of purpose. He 
was unlike some men of celebrity, who appear greater in distant per- 
spective, which hides their weaknesses and failings from public view, 
but when brought into proximity with their admirers detract from the 
enchantment of the picture and its impress upon the imagination. 

But Mr. D.A. vis's mental and moral proportions will suffer no dimi- 



14 



REMARKS BY MR. CAMERON ON THE 



nution when brought into close and famiUar connection. He was a 
strong man in will and intellect; and with a mind enriched by the 
fruits of learning and experience, he never compromised his dignity 
nor lessened the prestige which his reputation had secured. He was 
a man of solid character and attainments, and of refined tastes and 
habits. 

The loss of such a one at any time must be severely felt; but at 
this period of our history, when we are almost in a transition state 
from war to peace, and engaged in the great work of restoration, the 
loss is more sensible and intense. We shall miss him in council, in 
debate, in the social circle, in personal intercourse, and in friendly 
relations. Cicero said, "The life of the dead is placed in the mem- 
ory of the living." We cherish a pride that we knew Mr. Davis so 
well; that he served his country faithfully; that no taint ever attached 
to liis name while living, and that no stain can ever disfigure the 
bright escutcheon of his memory now he has gone. But his sun has 
set — not in the effulgence of noonday life, but in the evening calm 
and stillness, when "coming events" signal their approach, and the 
luminous yet soft and mellow tints are thrown in beauteous rays upon 
the reflecting sky. 

A renowned hero, when about to take his departure from earth, 
said, " Let us cross the river and rest under the shadows of the 
trees." May we not hope that our deceased friend has safely passed 
the river of life, and found a resting-place among the trees of Para- 
dise, where golden fruits are gathered and enjoyed? 

We who survive, and on whom great responsibilities rest, should 
learn the solemn lesson which this day and this event teach us. 



J^EMARKS BY Mr. CaMERON, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr. President: The tributes paid to-day to the memory of the 
departed Senator from Kentucky awaken in my heart ])eculiar mem- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. I c; 

ories. More than thirty years ago I was informed that a lady, trav- 
eling in the cars, had been taken suddenly ill while passing through 
the village in which I then lived. She was taken to the inn, where 
she was forced to remain for weeks, and during that time my family 
ministered to her comfort until her recovery was complete. The 
lady was Mrs. Garrett Davis. And from that time dates an inti- 
mate friendship between Mr. Davis and myself, which nothing ever 
impaired in the slightest degree while he lived. During the long 
years which have passed over me since then, I learned to know and 
love the generous, warm-hearted gentleman, the honest and faithful 
friend, whose death we now deplore. Few men have died leaving 
behind them less bitterness or less cause for unpleasant recollections. 
He was a warm friend and an open foe; and these two qualities rate 
highly in my estimation. 

Of Mr. Davis's public life only one thing can be justly said ; He 
was always true to his convictions, and bold in their advocacy. In 
his earlier years he was a fnend and disciple of Henry Clay, and for 
many years the State which gave him birth honored itself by electing 
him to the House of Representatives, where he played an honorable 
part in the duties of his position, and at last he was transferred to 
this body to represent his native State. 

When the conspiracy to overthrow our Government developed, his 
patriotism blazed forth, and he at once took up arms to maintain the 
authority of the laws and to preserve the Union he revered ; and it 
was only when the great revolution of emancipation came face to 
face with the country that he cooled in his reverence and love of the 
Federal power. Many of us regretted, and still regret, that he did 
not see his way clear to support that just and great measure. But 
our regret was mingled with sympathy for one whose education and 
surroundings made it next to impossible for him to see cleariy through 
the mist and darkness of early prejudice and eariy training. Even 
in his opposition, however, the nature and virtues of the man shone 



i6 



REMARKS BY MR. THURMAN ON THE 



clearly. Being convinced that the emancipation of the slaves was 
wrong, he opposed it, and all legislation flowing from it, with an 
honest intensity which made those who regretted his course admire 
his straightforward, manly conduct, and while many disagreed with 
him all respected him. He was a frank, free-hearted gentleman, 
fulfilling all the duties of life with conscientious fidelity, and leaving 
behind him the fame of an industrious public servant and a thor- 
oughly honest man. 

With a heart full of sorrow for the friend of my earlier days, and 
the colleague of my age, I have felt it to be my duty to mingle a few 
rugged but honest words in his honor and to his memory. 



Remarks by Mr. Thurman, of Ohio. 

Mr. President: I knew Mr. Davis well. My acquaintance with 
him commenced twenty-seven years ago, when we were members of 
the House of Representatives. He was a man of uncommon force 
of mind, earnestness of purpose, industry, purity, and courage. He 
had very lofty sentiments of honor, virtue, and patriotism, and he 
strove to approach, as nearly as possible, to his high ideal. Of a 
quick and nervous temperament, he sometimes, in the heat of speech, 
gave offense; but no man that I ever knew was more ready than he 
to make reparation when he saw that he had erred. He never meant 
to be unjust, and it was only necessary to convince him that he had 
been, to draw from him the amplest atonement. He was a ready 
and powerful debater, speaking frequently, from the fullness of a well- 
stored mind, in order to discharge what he deemed to be his duty, 
and never to gratify a feeling of personal vanity ; and few men, 
however well informed, ever listened to him without deriving instruc- 
tion from what he said. He had a profound love for his country and 
for the original Constitution. His admiration of that instrument was 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARKETT DAVIS. I 7 

almost without limit. He considered it the wisest constitution of 
government ever ordained, and he never could regard what he 
thought a violation of it without real pain and suffering. 

At the bar he occupied a prominent place. Next to constitutional 
law, the common law seemed to me to be his favorite study ; and he 
possessed in a high degree the qualities that make the successful 
practitioner. By his death the country has lost an able and e.xperi- 
enced statesman, the law a learned and industrious advocate, and a 
large circle of acquaintances a true and valued friend. 



Remarks by Mr. ^umner, of Massachusetts. 

Mr. President: I was a member of the Senate when, in 1861, our 
departed Senator entered it, and I was to the end the daily witness 
of his laborious service. Standing now at his funeral, it is easy to 
forget the differences between us and remember those things in which 
he was an example to all. 

Death has its companionship. In its recent autumn harvest were 
Gareett Davis, William H. Seward, and Horace Greeley. Seward 
was the precise contemporary of Davis, each beginning life with the 
century and dymg within a few days of each other. Always alike 
in constancy of labor, they were for a larger part of this period asso- 
ciated in political sentiment as active members of the old Whig party. 
But the terrible question of slavery rose to divide them. How com- 
pletely they were on opposite sides I need not say. Horace Greeley 
was ten years the junior, but he was the colleague and peer of Garrett 
Davis in devotion to Henry Clay. In the whole country, among all 
whose enthusiastic support he aroused, there was no one who upheld 
the Kentucky statesman with more chivalrous devotion than these 
two. Here they were alike, and in the record of life this signal fidel- 
ity cannot be forgotten. It was to the honor of Henry Clay that he 



inspired this sentiment in such men, and it was to their honor that 
they maintained it so truly. Kindred to truth is fideHty. 

At his death, Garrett Davis was our congressional senior, havmg 
entered the other House as early as 1839, after previous service of six 
years in the legislature of Kentucky. For eight years he sat as Rep- 
resentative, and then, after an interval of thirteen years, he was for 
nearly twelve years Senator. During this long period he was con- 
spicuous before the country, dwelling constantly in the public eye. 
How well he stood the gaze, whether of friend or foe, belongs to his 
good name. 

All who knew him in the Senate will bear witness to his wonderful 
industry, his perfect probity, and the personal purity of his life. No 
differences of opinion can obscure the fame of these qualities or keep 
them from being a delight to his friends and an example to his coun- 
try. Nor can any of us forget how, amid peculiar trials, he was 
courageous in devotion to the National Union. No pressure, no 
appeal, no temptation, could sway him in this patriotic allegiance. 
That fidelity which belonged to his nature shone here as elsewhere. 
He was no holiday Senator, cultivating pleasure rather than duty, and 
he was above all suspicion in personal conduct. Calumny could not 
reach him. Nothing is so fierce and unreasoning as the enmities 
engendered by political antagonists; but even these never questioned 
that he was at all times incorruptible and pure. Let this be spoken 
in his honor; let it be written on his monument. Nor can the State 
that gave him to the national service and trusted him so long fail to 
remember with pride that he was always an honest man. 

With this completeness of integrity there was a certain wild inde- 
pendence and intensity of nature which made him unaccommodating 
and irrepressible. Faithful, constant, devoted, indefatigable, implac- 
able, he knew not how to capitulate. Dr. Johnson, who liked " a 
good hater," would have welcomed him into this questionable fellow- 
ship. Here I cannot doubt. Better far the opposite character, and 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. 



19 



even the errors that may come from it. Kindred to hate is prejudice, 
which was too often active in him, seeming at times, especially where 
we differed from him, to take the place of reason. On nothing was 
this so marked as slavery. Here his convictions were undisguised ; 
nor did they yield to argument or the logic of events. How much 
of valuable time, learned research, and intellectual effort he bestowed 
in support of this dying cause, the chronicles of the Senate attest. 
How often have we listened with pain to this advocacy, regretting 
deeply that the gifts he possessed, and especially his sterling character, 
were enlisted where our sympathies could not go. And yet I cannot 
doubt that others would testify, as I now do, that never on these 
occasions, when the soul was tried in its depths, did any fail to recog- 
nize the simplicity and integrity of his nature. Had he been less hon- 
est I should have felt his speeches less. Happily that great con- 
troversy is ended ; nor do I say anything but the strict truth when I 
add that now we bury him who spoke last for slavery. 

Time is teacher and reconciler ; nor is it easy for any candid 
nature to preserve a constant austerity of judgment toward persons. 
As evening approaches, the meridian heats lose their intensity. While 
abiding tirmly in the truth as we saw it, there may be charity and 
consideration for those who did not see it as we saw it. A French 
statesman yet living, whose name is indissolubly connected with the 
highest literature, as well as some of the most unportant events of 
liis age, teaches how with the passage of life the judgment is softened 
toward others. "The more," says M. Guizot, "I have penetrated 
into an understanding and experience of things, of men, and of my- 
self, the more I have perceived at the same time my general convic- 
tions strengthen and my personal impressions become calm and mild. 
Equity, I will not say toleration for the faith of others, in religion or 
politics, has come to take place and grow by the side of tranquillity 
in my own faith. It is youth, with its natural ignorance and passion- 
ate prejudices, which renders us exclusive and biting in our judgments 



20 



REMARKS BY MR. BAYARD ON THE 



of Others. In proportion as I quit myself, and as time sweeps me far 
from our combats, I enter without difficulty into a serene and pleasant 
appreciation of ideas and sentiments which do not belong to me." 
Even if not adopting these words completely, all will confess their 
beauty. 

Here let me be frank. Nothing could make any speech for 
slavery tolerable to me ; but when I think how much opinions are 
determined by the influences about us, so that a change of birth and 
education might have made the abolitionist a partisan of slavery and 
the partisan of slavery an abolitionist, I feel that, while always unre- 
lenting toward the wrong, we cannot be insensible to individual merits. 
In this spirit I offer a sincere tribute to a departed Senator who, amid 
the perturbations of the times, trod his way with independent step, 
and won even from opponents the palm of character. 



Remarks by Mr. ^ayard, of Pelaware. 

Mr. President: My personal associations with our late friend, the 
deceased Senator from Kentucky, date but a comparatively few years 
back ; and in view of the just eulogy, and full, interesting, and dis- 
criminating sketch of his career by his distinguished colleague, to 
which we have just listened, approved as it has been alike by those 
who were his party allies and opponents in this Chamber, I might 
well hesitate to detain the Senate by any reference to the short period 
covered by my personal acquaintance. But that period, although 
short, has been full of occurrences deeply significant and important 
in the history of our country, and the part borne by Mr. Davis so 
useful to his fellow-countrymen as well as honorable to his name 
and memory, that I conceive it proper upon this sad occasion to 
make brief mention of it. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. 2 1 

No period in the political history of the United States has been 
more pregnant with the spirit of transition and change (not to say 
revolution) than the past four years; and measures of the gravest 
and most far-reaching influence, in the theory and practice of onr 
system of government, have been under consideration, and, for better 
or for worse, incorporated with our institutions. Not upon this occa- 
sion, sir, do I propose to discuss the benefit, or the contrary, to this 
Union of States, or their people, of these profound alterations in our 
pohtical structure. Behind the veil of the future and in the verdict 
of a later generation must be found the truer answer. But when the 
actors of the period to which I have referred come to be reviewed, 
and the several responsibilities of each to be considered and adjudged, 
I am among those who believe that the fame of Garrett Davis, of 
Kentucky, will gain an increased luster when the record of his earnest, 
able, unflinching, and so often eloquent efforts in this Chamber, in 
favor of fixing and retaining constitutional hmitations upon govern- 
mental powers, shall be read and appreciated. 

Mr. Davis was an experienced statesman, an able constitutional 
and common lawyer, and high as was his intellectual rank, still higher 
was his moral grade of thought and action. He loved truth for her 
own sweet sake, and the personal intrepidity which so characterized 
the man never permitted him to wander from her paths. His good 
faith was kept alike with friend and foe, and so clear was he in 
office as to be not only uncharged with moral delinquency, but even 
by his worst foe unsuspected. 

Who would willingly forget the high and genial courtesy which 
so marked his friendly intercourse ? And however prompt was his 
recognition and immediate his response to anything that savored of 
defiance, equally ready was he to yield to the softer touches of recon- 
ciliation. 

Mr. Davis's intellectual vigor was constantly outrunning his phys- 
ical powers, and sitting at his side in the Senate-Chamber I was fre- 



22 



REMARKS BY MR. TRUMBULL ON THE 



quently made aware of the painful conditions under which his duties 
were performed. His was — 

"A fiery soul, which, working out its way, 
Fretted the pigmy body to decay, 
And o'er-informed the tenement of clay." 

And, now, Mr. President, in the hurried march of events in this 
Chamber, the scene of busy government, is it not well that we should 
pause, and reflect how far the moral life of a man exceeds in its in- 
fluence and its importance his highest mental results, and that in our 
struggles here this great truth should not be forgotten^^o.f/ funera 
virtus ? 



Remarks by Mr. Trumbull, of Jllinois 

Mr. President : This is the twenty-second time since I have been 
a member that the Senate has suspended its ordinary business to pay 
a tribute of respect to a deceased brother; and of the fifty-eight 
Senators in this body when I entered it, more than half have gone 
to their final account. 

Admonished by these frequently occurring events that our mortal 
feet have almost reached the brink where all distinctions cease and 
human aspirations are at an end, how vain, illusory, and msignifi- 
cant appear the ambitions, and rivalries, and positions of this tran- 
sitory state! If the hour devoted to a consideration of the life and 
character of our deceased associate shall serve to mollify the strifes 
and animosities so often engendered in this Chamber, and the better 
to fit us to walk the path he has so recently trod, it will not have 
been misspent. 

My first acquaintance with Mr. Davis began when he entered the 
Senate, at the commencement of the late civil war. He came here 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. 23 



an ardent Union man. We had none more so among us. As the 
war progressed he became dissatisfied with some of the measures 
adopted in its prosecution, and though he never faltered in devotion 
to his country, his course was not always in harmony with those 
controlling its affairs. He was a man of earnest convictions and 
fearless in their expression. There was a time near the close of the 
war, and soon after, when, dissatisfied with some of the measures of 
the Government, he occupied much time in expressing his oppo- 
sition, and was sometimes regarded as tedious by some of tho.se 
favoring the measures he assailed; but who can blame him for giv- 
ing full expression to his views in those troublous and trying times, 
when the wisest and most patriotic might be pardoned for mistakes ? 
It is too soon, even now, to determine whether impartial history may 
not discover that the measures adopted were not always the best 
which could have been devised to close up the wounds inflicted by a 
great civil war and restore among all our people that harmony and 
social intercourse without which liberty and life itself are scarcely 
worth possessing. During the later years of his service in the Senate 
Mr. Davis spoke less frequently and more concisely. His knowledge 
of public affairs and of the history of the Government was second 
to that of no one in the Senate, and no man could listen to him 
without instruction and profit. Although he had attained his three- 
score years when I first knew him, he retained all the fire and vigor 
of youth. In the discharge of what he conceived to be public duty 
he was bold, fearless, and aggressive. In private intercourse he was 
courteous, gentle, and obliging. In committee and in the transac- 
tion of the ordinary business of the Senate, he was eminently fair 
and just. 

To sum up his character, he was a man of ardent temperament, 
of a high sense of honor, of earnest convictions, which he fearlessly 
proclaimed, of great and varied information, a true friend to his 
country, and an honest man. 



24 



REMARKS BY MR. MACHEN ON THE 



Remarks by yviR. yVLACHEN, of J<:entucky. 

Mr. President: The insatiate demands of the great enemy of the 
human family are continually presenting occasions for sadness, sor- 
row, and mourning. No condition in life can evade them. All 
that live must sooner or later die. No panoply with which we may 
envelop ourselves will shield us from his piercing shaft. Dust must 
return again to dust, and the evidences of vigorous, buoyant life ex- 
hibited to-day in this honorable body will be exchanged at no very 
distant date, personally and collectively, for the pallid cerements of 
the grave. 

Hon. Garrett Davis was doomed as all others are. He separated 
from you last summer in feeble health, but a return to his own native 
hills and wide-spreading lawns, covered with the most beautiful ver- 
dure upon which the eye of man has ever rested, gave promise that 
soon he would again enjoy the physical energy and health of which 
he had been so suddenly deprived in your midst. Again he appeared 
at the bar, his favorite forum for intellectual combat, but it was 
only to reahze that the enemy had been foiled and not defeated. 
Nature gave way, and on the 2 2d day of September last he fell an 
illustrious victim of the merciless destroyer's power. 

He died with all his intellectual faculties in noon-tide refulgence, 
and from which emanated no dim or uncertain light. Had not death 
interposed, his voice would to-day have been heard in this Hall 
sounding the notes of constitutional liberty, and the sunlight of his 
brilliant genius would have shone on the legislative deliberations of 
the closing session of the Forty-second Congress. 

I do not propose, Mr. President, to attempt a lengthened eulogy 
of Mr. Davis. It was not my privilege to have had, at any time, 
familiar personal acquaintance with him. Politically for most of our 
lives we had belonged to contending parties— widely separated geo- 
graphically, more widely politically— he an old-line Whig and I a 
Democrat; he a conspicuous member of the party in the days when 



the brilliant genius of the illustrious Clay marked out the pathway of 
that long-honored party, and I but a private in the ranks of that 
grand old army marshaled by the no less illustrious Jackson. 

For the first time we were brought personally together in the con- 
stitutional convention of Kentucky, in 1849. That body had been 
chosen not so much from general political associations as for the ac- 
complishment of certain reforms in our organic law, and although the 
State was then decidedly Whig, a majority of that body was Demo- 
cratic. While general politics had not decided the character of the 
convention, it in the nature of things resulted that they did to some 
extent control our associations ; and hence I was not even then very 
familiar with Mr. Davis. He had for many years been a member of 
Congress, and in the discussions of the day, both in that body and 
on the stump, which were frequently animated, and even of a very 
angry character, had borne his full part. In my limited sphere I 
had also taken some part in local discussions, and animadversions 
upon antagonists were common. This had not prepared me to re- 
gard Mr. Davis with an impartial judgment, and we had scarcely 
indulged the ordinary courtesies of acquaintance until an occasion 
presented, as I conceived, a better illustration of the spirit of the man 
than the political arena had furnished. I was then, as at present, 
unknown to fame, but a subject of interest being under consideration 
in the convention, took occasion to join in the debate, and upon the 
conclusion of my remarks Mr. Davis arose from his seat on the op- 
posite side of the hall and approached me with a pleasant smile and 
extended hand, congratulating me upon the effort just made, and ex- 
pressing a wish to become better acquainted. This incident devel- 
oped, as I thought, a trait of character but seldom shown, and a spirit 
perhaps more seldom felt by those engaged in the excitements of 
political life, and I could but feel most sensibly that I had neither 
known nor justly appreciated the impulses by which he had been 
moved. 



26 



REMARKS BY MR. MACHEN ON THE 



Mr. Davis was a devoted friend of the great commoner, Henry 
Clay, was his intimate associate, and shared his confidence to a very 
great extent ; and though not his equal in eloquence, oratory, or 
genius, (as how few were,) was a strong pillar in the Whig party— a 
man of very decided character, great perspicuity of thought, nervous 
in expression, but always chaste and generally classic in the choice 
of weapons used in discussion. As a patriot, looking with undivided 
attachment upon his country, her cause was his cause, her preserva- 
tion his grand object, and right or wrong she was his country and 
above all others. In the maintenance of what he conceived to be 
her interests and for the preservation of the rights of the people un- 
der constitutional government, none were more bold or determined. 
His zeal in her cause has occasionally led him into political collisions 
of a very heated and rather intemperate character; and yet in all 
these the distinctive purpose of constitutional preservation has been 
clearly and unmistakably marked. 

Soon after the late civil strife had commenced, Mr. Davis, by the 
Legislature of Kentucky, was sent to the Senate of the United States, 
where the balance of his life was spent. Twice indorsed by his own 

State once under circumstances of great excitement, and a second 

time when cool, dispassionate judgment decided upon the worth of 
his intellectual services to the State and country— he died full of 
years and honors, and, like the mailed warrior of old, with his armor 
on, and I doubt not to-day is reaping the reward of the Christian 
soldier made perfect, in the land where the clangor of arms will no 
more be heard, and the harmony of unbroken peace forever reigns. 

Mr. President, I cannot say that even very often I have thought 
Mr. Davis right in his conclusions as to national policy. We rarely 
agreed in our views or harmonized in action ; but I can say with 
perfect freedom and candor that I believe he was actuated by the 
purest devotion to what he believed to be the interest and welfare of 
our country, and in this I doubt not I shall have the hearty accord 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. 



27 



of all this honorable body with whom he has been so long associated, 

and by whom he was so much better known than by myself. That 

he was without faults none will contend, for so to have been would 

have been above mortality. They were, however, few, and none of 

venal character. It has been said that — 

"The evil that men do lives after them, 
The good is oft interred with their bones ; " 

but this was pagan philosophy, unenlightened by the benignant reign 
of Christian charity and civilization. If from any act of Mr. Davis 
evil resulted, that evil is or will soon be forgotten, and his many vir- 
tues will be highly cherished as long as patriotism has an advocate 
and moral boldness an admirer. 



The Presiding Officer, (Mr. Pomeroy in the chair.) The question 
is on the adoption of the resolutions. 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted; and the Senate (at 
two o'clock and thirty minutes p. m.) adjourned. 



PROCEEDINGS 

IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



A message from the Senate, by Mr. McDonald, its chief clerk, 
announced that he was directed by the Senate to inform the House of 
Representatives of the death of Hon. Garrett Davis, late a Senator 
of the United States from the State of Kentucky, and to communi- 
cate to the House of Representatives the proceedings of the Senate 
thereon. 



J^EMARKS BY J^R. ^ECK, OF J<;eNTUCKY. 

Hon. Garrett Davis, Senator from Kentucky, whose death has 
been officially announced to the House, died at his home in Paris, 
Bourbon County, Kentucky, on the 22d day of September, 1872, 
full of years and of honors. He was bom on the loth day of Sep- 
tember, 1 80 1, in Montgomery County, Kentucky. His term of life 
exceeded the threescore years and ten which ordinarily limit human 
existence. 

He had filled or been tendered by the people of Kentucky all the 
high positions and offices they had to bestow. The people of Bour- 
bon elected him for three consecutive terms as their representative 
in the State Legislature, in the years 1833, 1834, and 1835, and the 
people of the Ashland district sent him to Congress for four consecutive 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. 



terms, beginning with the Twenty-sixth and ending with the Twenty- 
ninth Congress. Before the expiration of his last term he determined 
to retire to private life, and in view of this resolution informed a friend 
of the late Governor C. S. Morehead that he would not be a candi- 
date for re-election. After he had made this communication he met 
Mr. Clay, who inquired of him if he intended to be a candidate, and 
on being answered in the negative, Mr. Clay bore testimony to his 
high character by saying, "You have an extensive acquaintance 
with members of Congress and with men who visit Washington City. 
The national convention to nominate a candidate for the Presidency 
will be held next summer ; I have confidence in your fidehty, and 
would like you to be in Washington City, and a member of Congress, 
to look after my interests." Mr. Davis excused himself to his illus- 
trious friend by telling him of his pledge to Governor Morehead. 

Mr. Davis was a member of the constitutional convention of Ken- 
tucky in 1849, and continued in that body until it agreed on and 
signed the present constitution of the State; but his objection to its 
principle of a judiciary elected by the popular vote was so decided 
that he voted against it and refused to sign it. 

He was tendered the nomination of the Whig party for lieutenant- 
governor by the convention which nominated Mr. Crittenden for 
governor, and was informally tendered the nomination for governor, 
which Hon. Charles S. Morehead afterward accepted; but he declined 
both, though his election was sure if he had made the race for either, 
as subsequent events proved. 

Mr. Davis was first elected to the Senate in 1861, to fill the unex- 
pired term of General Breckinridge, and wms re-elected in 1867 for 
the term which expires March 4, 1873. 

The simple recital of these facts demonstrates more conclusively 
than the most eloquent words the confidence his people had in him. 
He lived and achieved success in an age and at a time when Ken- 
tucky had among her sons many distinguished men. To say nothing 



30 



REMARKS BY MR. BECK ON THE 



of those who yet hve, Clay, Crittenden, Marshall, the Wickliftes, 
Morehead, Powell, and a host of others, now no more, were his com- 
peers ; and while it is true that Kentucky has had more persuasive 
orators, more distinguished jurists, and statesmen of more extended 
reputation, it is safe to say that he combined in a very high degree all 
the elements necessary to attain eminence in every position he was 
called to fill. 

The traits of character which specially endeared Mr. Davis to the 
people of Kentucky, and made him the recipient of the highest 
honors they could bestow, were his honesty, his truthfulness, and his 
courage. They felt that no stain of corruption would ever be placed 
on the escutcheon of the Commonwealth while he could keep it pure 
and undefiled. They knew that, while he was impetuous and liable to 
commit errors, he would honestly confess his wrongs and correct his 
mistakes when he saw them, and they were assured beyond all perad- 
venture that he would resent, if need be at the sacrifice of life and for- 
tune, any and all insults and indignities to his State or people, no matter 
where, when, or by whom they were offered. In short, they knew 
that " all the ends he aimed at were his country's, his God's, and 
truth's;" and being so assured, they never faltered in their confidence 
in or devotion to him. 

His faults, follies, or vices, call them what you will, were but vir- 
tues exaggerated. With a quick temper, a strong will, and a clear 
perception of the right as he saw and understood it, he was impatient 
of contradiction, and sometimes failed to make allowances for the 
opinions and conduct of those who differed with him, which a man 
of more equable temper or less profound convictions would have done. 

The country will not soon forget the zeal with which, in 1862, he 
prosecuted his resolutions for the expulsion of his colleague, Hon. 
Lazarus W. Powell, from the Senate of the United States, and his 
manly apology on the floor of the Senate when he became satisfied 
that he had done him injustice. Nor will his equally bold defense of 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. 



himself, in 1864, when a distinguished Senator sought to have him 
expelled for resolutions he had offered against the then Administra- 
tion, soon- be forgotten, while all who knew him will agree that he 
was equally sincere, equally true to his own convictions of duty, 
through all the seeming contradiction of his positions. 

The Legislature of Kentucky paid the highest possible tribute to 
him by returning him to the Senate of the United States in 1867, 
though a majority of the members had been his political opponents. 
Their act was the tribute of brave men to honesty, fidelity, and 
courage. He was a diflerent man in the eyes of the people of 
Kentucky and of those who were drawn closely to him, firom what 
he appeared to strangers. To us he stood on the foreground of the 
picture; by others he was seen only in the dim distance. Conduct 
which from their stand-point appeared unaccountable, and doubtless 
sometimes wrong, we knew was prompted by the highest convictions 
of duty and the keenest sense of honor. Knowing that, the people 
of Kentucky never refused him any position he desired. 

That Mr. Davis was a lawyer of distinguished ability, as well as a 
statesman profoundly versed in his country's history, all who ever 
heard him speak or read his speeches know. Few men analyzed 
intricate questions more clearly or presented them more forcibly. 

I, in common with all who practiced at the bar with him, will never 
forget the indefatigable industry, zeal, and research which characterized 
all his efforts. The wonder was, how a man of his delicate frame 
and nervous organization could endure the herculean labor he per- 
formed. 

I will not take time, as others desire to be heard, to speak of his 
private life further than to say that he was a model gentleman in his 
social intercourse. Courteous to all, temperate in all his appetites, 
unobtrusive, yet kind and genial, his was a life worthy of imitation. 

He died in the midst of a great political struggle, which aroused 
all the enthusiasm of his nature, and it may be that his labors in the 



32 



REMARKS BY MR, ARTHUR ON THE 



cause he espoused shortened his days. But death had no terrors 
for him if hfe had to be prolonged at the sacrifice of duty. His 
remains are among the friends he loved; his grave will be visited 
with profound respect by the people of Kentucky; and it may be 
truthfully said of him, as was said by the regent of Scotland at the 
grave of John Knox, " There lies one who never feared the face of 
man." 



P.EMARKS BY ^Wr. ^iRTHUR, OF JCeNTUCKY. 

Mr. Speaker: Mr. Davis was a man of great individuality. He 
was pre-eminently self-sustaining. He leaned only upon himself As 
well in thought as in feeling, he was original, bold, and pronounced. 
His intellect, his integrity, his courage, and his self-respect were im- 
pregnable. 

Whether in a legal or political forum, he sounded and penetrated 
his subject with a masculine comprehension; he intuitively pierced 
its center, and patiently worked his way to the open day upon its 
border. No obstacles deterred, no opposition embarrassed, no 
champion alarmed him. His strength, his ardor, his resources, and 
his intrepidity were greatest when most resisted. 

Fiery, impetuous, and daring on occasions^ he was in deliberation 
luminous, exact, and exhaustive. Though stern and unrelenting as 
an avenging warrior in confronting and crushing an unworthy antag- 
onist, his was the delicacy and tenderness of woman toward all the 
world beside. 

His love for his country was comprehensive, fervid, and inextin- 
guishable. Fixed in his mind were all the philosophic events of its 
discovery, its rise, growth, and progress. Throughout his long and 
distinguished career he never ceased to be an unwearied, discriminat- 
ing, and enthusiastic student, expounder, and defender of our Federal 
and State systems. 



If 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. 



35 






Than that in which he hved, no era in the circle of American con- 
stitutional government has been more crowded with momentous vicis- 
situdes. Throughout all he was an observer or an actor, and for the 
most part both. For more than a generation past he had been prom- 
inent among the makers of political history. The arches and columns 
of this illustrious Capitol are his monumental witnesses. In the line 
of public duty he beheld rise this amazing structure, and in its Halls, 
committee-rooms, and corridors, for his country's glory, he day by 
day spent the vigor of his years. 

He was trained and practiced in at once the highest and severest 
schools of American statesmanship. The greatest masters of juridical 
science and deliberative eloquence were his daily companions, and 
oftentimes his well-matched antagonists. Among the great he grew 
to the full measure of his stature. 

Co-extensive with the annals of our institutions will live the endur- 
ing evidences of his industry, his learning, his ability, his eloquence, 
and his patriotism. 

If fervently he loved American institutions, with equal fervency 
did he love American people. The horizon of his robust affections 
encircled the whole sisterhood of States, and rose on all sides to the 
zenith of a Union equal, impartial, and perpetual. 

With all this Mr. Davis was every inch a Kentuckian. He excelled 
in many of the highest attributes, moral and intellectual, of the people 
of the great Commonwealth which cherished and honored him from 
his cradle to his grave. In his indomitable spirit, in his stern self- 
reliance, in his exalted aspirations for honorable fame in the public 
service, in his tenacity of purpose, in his magnanimity and integrity, he 
was eminently a representative man of the people of his native State. 

Generous nature, popular devotion, and his own manly heart and 
unconquerable mind place him forever in line with the great states- 
men and jurists, now no more, whose peer and contemporary he was. 
Take him all in all, there are few, if any, such men left in our day, 



34 



REMARKS BY MR. WOOD ON THE 



and his name and fame will endure, an honorable legacy to all who 
shall prove worthy to survive him. 



Remarks by Mr. Wood, of New York. 

Mr. Speaker: To me this occasion has melancholy interest. It 
revives recollections of another period. It recalls memories asso- 
ciated with my early and youthful entrance into the public service. 
I came here in May, 1841, as a member of the Twenty-seventh 
Congress, where I first knew Garrett Davis as a Representative from 
Kentucky. I was frequently associated with him at that time in the 
discharge of official duty. Though he was many years my senior in 
age, and of a different political party, we soon became friends and 
companions. Though comparatively a young man, he was even 
then a prominent and influential member of this House. His pe- 
culiar personal characteristics were already strongly developed. He 
was high-toned, independent, impulsive, and frank. Though the 
great leader of his party, (Henry Clay,) then a Senator, was the sole 
custodian of the partisan power of his party in Congress, yet Mr. 
Davis frequently refused to carry out even his mandates, or to bow 
with submission to his will. With him, as a Representative, the 
conscientious discharge of duty was paramount to every other con- 
sideration. His action was prompted by conviction, and his convic- 
tions were the creations of a well-ordered mind, greatly strength- 
ened by a pure and manly spirit. Throughout life he maintained 
the same elevated standard. Of comprehensive intellect, of generous 
impulses, of chivalrous honor, of untarnished private and public life, 
he has gone down to an honored grave and left to posterity a lovely 
and bright example. 

Mr. Speaker, I have said that this occasion is of melancholy inter- 
est. I refer not only to the individual loss we have met with in the 
death of this truly great and good man; not only to the early recol- 




( 



lections revived iu me personally, connected with my own entree into 
this House; but also to the fact that one more link is broken of the 
chain that binds this generation of statesmen to that which has 
preceded it; that one by one, slowly but surely, those who suc- 
ceeded those who created our Government are being gathered to 
their fathers. When Mr. Davis entered Congress the great leaders of 
public opinion were Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Benton, and Van Buren. 
They were the successors to Jefferson, Adams, Jackson, and Taney. 
The three generations thus personified mark the three epochs of our 
country, each prolific of the very highest order of patriotism and 
most transcendent ability. Of that to which Mr. Davis belonged in 
his early career, ahready but few remain. Here and there we may 
yet see a flickering light; but — 

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 
To the last syllable of recorded time ; 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
The way to dusty death." 

He is gone. Peace to his ashes ! May his example be followed 
in all that is ennobling to our nature — in his purity of heart, his 
earnest devotion to his country, and in his independent, conscien- 
tious, and manly discharge of every private and public obligation of 
life. That he was exempt from all the frailties incident to humanity 
I do not declare, but that he possessed attributes which dignify 
public stations and endear us to each other I do declare, and chal- 
lenge fearlessly a well-founded denial. 



J^KMARKS BY JIVR. J=OLAND, OF yERMONT. 

Mr. Speaker: I will detain the House but a very few minutes on 
this occasion. I deem it proper to say a few words at this time be- 
cause I suppose I was connected officially with Mr. Davis at a later 
period of his life, perhaps, than was any other member upon this floor. 



36 



REMARKS BY MR. POLAND ON THE 



My first acquaintance with the late Mr. Davis was at the beginning 
of the Thirty-ninth Congress, when I took the place of Judge Colla- 
mer in the Senate, and during that Congress I served in the Senate 
with Mr. Davis. There had been a peculiar friendship between him 
and Judge Collamer, my predecessor in the Senate. They had been 
associated for a number of years as members of this House, and for 
a considerable number of years they had been associates in the Sen- 
ate. There was a very warm and ardent friendship between them. 
On my coming to the Senate to take the place of Judge Collamer, 
Mr. Davis seemed to transfer his friendship for Judge Collamer to 
myself; and during my period of service there, and from that time 
to the time of his death, our relations were very friendly indeed. 

After I left the Senate and came to this House we were associated 
as regents of the Smithsonian Institution, he being one of the regents 
on the part of the Senate and I one on the part of the House. In 
that way we were brought into intimate association. 

I had known of Mr. Davis as a public man, and of his reputation 
as such, before I became personally acquainted with him. But my 
views of the man, my views of his character, were mainly derived 
from my association with him in the Senate. He seemed one of 
the most industrious and laborious men in that body, always watch- 
ful and attentive to every duty. He was a man of large attain- 
ments, especially in the law and in the political history of the country. 
But few men I have ever met were better versed in either of those 
branches of knowledge. His character was eminently and peculiarly 
conservative. He was a man who believed earnestly and sincerely 
in the "wisdom of the fathers." Every proposition for change was 
distasteful and disagreeable to him, and he came very slowly to the 
adoption of any new views. 

Mr. Davis was a very ardent Union man. No man was more bit- 
terly opposed to secession than he was ; no man was a more warm 
and devoted friend of the Union. The result of the war, so far as it 




resulted in the overthrow of the rebellion, was as agreeable to him as 
to any other Union man. But the changes in the form of the Gov- 
ernment, the constitutional amendments, the acts of reconstruction, 
and the other governmental acts which, by the dominant party of 
the country, were deemed necessary in order to make the Government 
conform to the altered condition of things, were very disagreeable to 
him and very repulsive to his notions. During the Thirty-ninth Con- 
gress the most prominent of these measures were before the Senate. 
Mr. Davis and myself were diametrically opposed upon them all. 
We were educated at different periods, under different civilizations, 
and our views of what was proper and necessary to be done were 
utterly diverse. I believe that in every single instance, upon every 
measure of that sort, my vote was upon the one side and his upon 
the other. 

I beheve then, as I believe now, that Mr. Davis was as honest and 
sincere in his views as I was in mine. I believe he accorded tlie 
same sincerity and honesty to me, and our warm personal relations 
were not in the slightest degree disturbed. But, as I have said, the 
social and political changes which were the result of the war were 
very disagreeable to him, and he opposed them bravely and earnestly, 
and, as I believe, conscientiously, though sustained only by a hope- 
less minority. And so in all public duties (so far as I had any means 
of observation) that he was called upon to perform, he was as firm 
and true to his convictions of duty, according to his idea and the light 
that was in him, as any man I have ever known. 

For purity of purpose, for patriotic devotion to his country, for fol- 
lowing bravely what he believed to be the right, he has set an example 
that nil of us who survive him may well follow. 



Remarks by Mr. Adams, op Kentucky. 
Mr. Speaker : It is not my purpose to attempt a eulogy upon the 



38 



REMARKS BY MR. ADAMS ON THE 



life or character of Mr. Davis. His name and his fame are forever 
secure, not only in the hearts of the people of his own State, where 
he was so well known and so universally beloved, but also in the pub- 
lic estimation of the whole country, in whose councils he served so 
long and in which he acted so conspicuous a part. And even if 
such were not the case, his private life and public career have already 
been referred to in fitting terms by others who have preceded me, and 
who knew him longer and better than mysflf. But, sir, I will be par- 
doned for desiring upon this melancholy occasion to pay a last tribute 
of respect to the memory of one for whom I entertained the pro- 
foundest respect, for whom I cherished the warmest attachment. 

I had from early boyhood heard much of the public life and emi- 
nent services of Mr. Davis, but it was not my good fortune to know 
him personally until the summer of 1867, when, upon my first en- 
trance into this Hall, I met him here in this city in his official ca- 
pacity as a Senator from the State of Kentucky. From that time 
forward I became intimately acquainted with Mr. Davis, and had 
evidences of his friendship of which I was glad to be assured while 
he lived, and which it is a pleasure to recall now that he is gone. 

The lineaments of Mr. Davis's character were well marked and 
clearly defined. Endowed by nature with unusual intellect, pos- 
sessed of indomitable courage and an inflexible and unyielding will, 
he was a man of intense individuality and wonderful self-reliance. 
When his opinions were once formed, no opposition could deter, no 
inducement could swerve him from the path of his duty. Upon all 
l)ublic questions he was decided and emphatic in his convictions. 
He knew no middle ground; he occupied no equivocal position. 
In the earnestness with which he advocated what he believed to be 
right, and the severity with which he denounced what he deemed to 
be wrong, he never stopped to inquire where his bolts would fall or 
whor.i his arrows would pierce. The artifice of the mere politician 
and the duplicity of the demagogue he utterly and thoroughly de- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. 



39 



spised; but he was never unmindful of the courtesy due to those with 
whom he differed, and whatever of zeal or vehemence he manifested 
in debate arose entirely from a thorough conviction of the truth and 
justness of his cause. 

In private life Mr. Davis was a kind, gentle, and genial com- 
panion, a true and steadfast friend, an honest and upright man. He 
had his faults, but they were of the nobler, not the baser kind. There 
was much in his character to admire, and very little really to con- 
demn." ", 'a'hq jiiDminent chkract^stic; of hi? -life' however, which dis- 
tinguisheci' hini above all others," and which was one of the secrets of 
his great t^Gctfess; ",w;?s bii. lefty- •Sense of-piiblit virtue, his spotless and 
irreproachable' iritegiity. Against him even the tongue of calumny 
never dared to whi^.el <i,bi«ath of suspicion. Through all his pri- 
vate life and public services there shines the luster of a noble and 
gifted manhood, a fervent and undying patriotism, a pure and unsul- 
lied name. 

But, Mr. Speaker, he is gone, and in his death his State has lost 
one of its most illustrious sons, his country one of its purest and 
ablest statesmen. Such was the man whose virtues we commemo- 
rate and whose loss we are called upon to mourn. 



JlEMARKS BY ^VIr. ^ANKS, OF ^VIaSSACHUSETTS. 

Mr. Speaker: The ancient Commonwealth of Kentucky has an in- 
teresting and memorable record. In the cluster of States which form 
the Union it constitutes the connecting-link between the republics of 
the constitutional period and those of our own day that enrich the 
valleys of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri, and occupy the west- 
ern slopes of the Pacific coast. Kentucky was the first State carved 
out of the territory of the great West ; and if we except the patriotic 
and prosperous Green Mountain State, which was formed by the 



40 



REMARKS BY MR. BANKS ON THE 



division of territory in part occupied or claimed by New York, hers 
was the first star added to the galaxy that blazed on the banner of 
the Revolution. She was certainly the eldest daughter of the Mother 
of States, the predecessor of that grand array of local governments of 
the interior and the Occident which hereafter may, perhaps, consti- 
tute the strength, wealth, integrity, and virtue of the American Repub- 
lic. In my own immediate neighborhood her traditions are familiar 
to the common people from the fact that a party of pioneers and 
hunters who bivouacked' a few; •.Trlf s'' from h>r 'frirftief -iieittement, 
where they received the news 'o'f the first'fight of the'toloriists against 
the army of Great Britafr.,tl-!e i9ta-'or April.i'77S,'at-Le>;ington, in 
Massachusetts, gave that name to the spot Vlieire tlieir camp was 
planted, now the site of the prosperous and patriotic city of Lexing- 
ton, the oldest, if not the most populous and prosperous, city of the 
State. The constant repetition of this incident gave them their ideas 
of the character of its founders, and accustomed them to associate the 
State and its hardy pioneers with the scenes and the men of the Revo- 
lution. In the war of 1812 Kentucky, flanked on the north and south 
by Ohio and Tennessee, assumed the position which the Atlantic 
colonies maintained during the war of independence. Their tradi- 
tions constitute the romance of early American history, and will live 
in song and story as long as the virtues of the founders and defenders 
of the country shall be imitated or respected. We should not forget 
her place in the official history of this House. Her representatives 
have been chosen for the distinguished chair you now occupy more 
frequently than those of any other State. And it is not and ought 
not to be forgotten that in our most recent and greatest trial she was 
the most decided of the border States of the South that were relied 
upon to complete the dissolution of the Union, in rejecting the here- 
sies of secessionists and secession. It could scarcely be expected that 
a State cradled amid the contests of the Revolution, that cherished 
the memories of such men as Boone, and Clay, and Crittenden, could 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. 4I 



voluntarily exchange the imperishable glories of the Union for the 
evanescent, provincial, and vulgar triumphs of isolation and annihila- 
tion. 

The most interesting features in the career of the distinguished 
Senator of Kentucky, whose death is announced by the message from 
the Senate, is, that while the State he so long and honorably repre- 
sented in the national councils is a connecting-link between the earlier 
and most recent development of American civilization, he himself, in 
his varied and long career, presents to our minds a similar connection 
of the founders of his State and the fathers of the Republic with the 
men of our own time, who are at this moment charged with the grave 
responsibilities of local and general administrations of government. 

With one exception, he was the eldest Senator of his time, having 
been born in the first year of the present century. In the period of 
life when character commences its formation he might have known 
the earlier Presidents, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Jack- 
son, and other distinguished leaders of that period. It is not improb- 
able that in personal intercourse, or by that oral communication in 
regard to public men which makes tradition of so long life, he may 
have imbibed much of the spirit of the age, and attuned his aspira- 
tions and convictions in harmony with those of the generation that 
preceded him. 

Entering Congress in the exciting and stormy period that immedi- 
ately preceded the presidential canvass of 1840, he was the associate 
and compeer of John Quincy Adams, Joshua R. Giddings, Silas 
Wright, Fillmore, Caleb Cushing, Judge Cliflbrd, President Buchanan, 
Benton, Calhoun, Clay, and Webster. " There were giants in those 
days." At a still later period he entered the Senate as an opponent 
of secession and the successor of Breckinridge, where he continued 
his labors with unfaltering fidelity and marvelous industry until the 
close of the last session of the present Congress. 

It was not my fortune to have formed with him an intimate personal 



42 



REMARKS BY MR. BANKS ON THE 



acquaintance, though I often exchanged with him the courtesies of 
the day ; and the very brief period that has elapsed since I was invited 
by the leader of the delegation in this House that specially mourns 
his loss to take a part in the ceremonies of this occasion has not 
afforded me opportunity, amid the pressing current business of the 
session, to present such an estimate as I could desire, if the opportu- 
nity offered, of his influence upon the legislation of the country. But 
I venture to mention several qualities of mind and character which, 
in my judgment, distinguished in no ordinary degree his official life, 
and justify the confidence and friendship shown to him by the gallant 
people he represented. Patriotism, fidelity, integrity, industry, and 
courtesy were the virtues that especially marked his career. I do 
not permit myself to question for a moment ray right to assign to 
him, as one of the sterling qualities of his character, the virtue of 
patriotism. By this I mean love of country — the whole country; 
not servility or fidelity merely to dogmas, platforms, or parties. The 
disciple of Clay and the compatriot of Crittenden, he could not have 
been otherwise than the unfaltering opponent of secession. 

The counterpart of secession was union. He was for the Union, 
fearless, constant, and invincible in its defense. Of this sentiment 
he was the chosen and honored representative of his State. It was 
devotion to this single sentiment at the opening of his senatorial 
career in the beginning of the war that constituted true patriotism. 
It is the custom of our day to regard all those who halt in support 
of theories and measures of administrations and of parties that break 
upon us from day to day, and hour to hour, as deficient in loyalty 
and patriotism. Fidelity to the Government and to republican prin- 
ciples is held to depend upon an unreserved and blind adherence to 
the shifting necessities of the times, and upon devotion to the preser- 
vation of the Union or the defense of liberty. The maxim of other 
days and wiser men points to a broader and nobler philosophy: "In 
essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity." 



In his time hostility to secession and support of the Union were 
the essential duties of patriots. In this he gave us unity. In non- 
essentials we should concede him liberty; and standing now near 
his grave, we ought in all things to accord him charity. 

But it will be as the friend of Henry Clay that the deceased 
Senator will be universally remembered. In this character his fidelity 
has conspicuity and imperishable beauty. Men of the worid, or 
especially those connected with public life, come naturally to distrust 
the sincerity of men, and to doubt the possibility of tidelity between 
man and man. But the common people have faith in friendship, and 
the great Kentucky statesman and his devoted and faithful friend will 
find a lasting and fond place in their memories. Their friendship does 
equal honor to both parties. It is the homage of fidelity to nobility. 
Like mercy, 

" It is twice bless'd: 
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes ; 
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest ; it becomes 
The throned monarch better than his crown." 

Whoever else may have failed, Mr. Clay found in the now deceased 
Senator a faithful and devoted friend. It does not imply on the part 
of the friend inferiority or servihty, but rather the higher and nobler 
qualities of nature. The second place is often the purer and greater 
in such relations. If there can be no subordinate place except m 
derogation and dishonor, there can be no friendship. Aut Casar aid 
nullus, is a maxim anti-democratic and vulgar, fatal to government, 
fatal to society, fatal to liberty, fatal to civilization. 

No man of our time, I think, has preserved a more scrupulous 
character for integrity. This essential quality— indispensable to legis- 
lators and rulers as in industry or commerce— he had in as high degree 
as any statesman of our history. It was integrity of mind and integ- 
rity of action; and the general homage which has been paid him by 
the people he represented is a touching and lasting tribute to his 
memory. 



44 



REMARKS BY MR. McHENRY ON THE 



Every speaker upon this occasion has alluded to his unfailing and 
almost unparalleled industry in the discharge of his official duties. 
Public duty has rarely had a more persistent and conscientious servant. 
It may, perhaps, be considered an unimportant trait, but it is the 
foundation of utility and success. The hot blood of the Southron did 
not fail to manifest itself, as we know ; but his intercourse with asso- 
ciates and his deportment in debate were distinguished by scrupulous 
regard for the rights of others and the freedom of discussion. 

Mr. Speaker, in these essential elements of character the deceased 
Senator was a man whom we might well imitate and may well honor ; 
and I trust his example and his record will be long remembered by 
the people of the country as illustrating the career of a distinguished 
and honorable member of the Congress of the United States. 



JIeMARKS by /Ah. JAcfiEKRY, OF JCentucky. 

Mr. Speaker: I cannot permit the last sad ceremonies on the 
death of the distinguished Senator from my State to pass without 
adding my humble and heart-felt tribute to his memory, and saying 
.1 few words in commemoration of his talents and virtues. I shall 
not, however, attempt to give the history of his life; that has been 
truthfully given by my colleague, [Mr. Beck.] It is enough for me to 
say that he lived to the age of threescore and ten, the time allotted 
to man, and that he died with honors clustering thick around him. 

That he was honest, industrious, faithful, and talented, is well known 
and recognized by his contemporaries in Congress and his constituents 
at home; and all can bear witness to the high political integrity and 
patriotism of his public life. His name and fame will be preserved 
in the history of Congress, and the records of either House attest his 
zeal for his State and country, and the indefatigable energy and 
ability which he manifested on all the great questions which were 



L.oFC^ 



presented here during his twenty years in the councils of the nation. 
He was not ambitious so far as concerned his individual preferment; 
it was for his country and his State that he struggled for position. 
That he might add to their welfare, and to the happiness of his people, 
was the manly and patriotic effort of his life. He was of those whose 
lot it was — 

"The applause of listening senates to command, 
The threats of pain and ruin to despise ; 
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, 

And read their history in a nation's eyes." 

He never aspired to a position that the people did not want him 
to fill, and consequently he never sustained a defeat for any office for 
which he was a candidate. It was my fortune to have been a mem- 
ber of the Kentucky Legislature each time when he was elected to the 
Senate, and I can but remember, in his last contest for a seat there, 
when the indications were that another distinguished gentleman 
seemed the choice of the political party to which he belonged, he 
retired from the contest immediately, and declined with so much 
grace, and with such little show of chagrin or mortification, that a 
strong feeling of admiration for his manly qualities sprang up in that 
body and resulted in his triumphant election. 

Mr. Davis formed his opinions on political matters with deliberation 
and honesty of purpose, and adhered to them with great fidelity and 
tenacity when he believed them to be right. In evidence of this, he 
was a member of the convention which formed the present constitu- 
tion of Kentucky, and was prominent in the debates and deliberations 
of that body, and many of its provisions are the result of his opinions 
and influence; but to some of its innovations upon old conservative 
ideas he was so conscientiously and unalterably opposed that he 
refused to sign it, and chose to resign his seat in the convention 
rather than connect his name with an instrument which he could not 
approve. But, sir, when he ascertained that he was wrong, no pride 
of opinion, no love of consistency, prevented him from placing him- 



46 



REMARKS BY MR. McHENRY ON THE 



self in the right, and making the amende honorable if that opinion 
had done injustice to another. As an example of this, I refer to what 
is well known in this Capitol, that after having introduced a resolution 
for the expulsion of his distinguished colleague, Senator Powell, he 
afterward made a manly retraction in the open Senate, and extended 
his hand so cordially to the gentleman, to whom he admitted he had 
done injustice, that they were warm and devoted friends afterward, 
and co-operated most earnestly for the interest of their native State. 

Mr. Davis's devotion to duty, and his energy to accomplish what- 
ever he believed to be for the welfare of his country, were above all 
personal considerations. During the last session, when he was sud- 
denly stricken with disease, which afterward proved fatal, I was the 
first of his colleagues who hastened to his bedside. I found him 
prostrate, with just enough of life for him to feel that the light of this 
world was fast fading from him; but even in that hour his thoughts 
turned to his duties as a Senator, and he charged me with a message 
to his friends in the Senate to get his vote paired off on the amnesty 
hill then under consideration, and for the passage of which he felt 
great interest. 

Mr. Davis was not a genius, nor were his talents of that brilliant 
style, nor his eloquence so commanding, as some of his predecessors 
whose names have become immortal; but he was eminently practical, 
strong, and forcible in his ideas, with a graceful flow of language 
which gave much eloquence to his speeches, and made him the peer 
in debate of any man in the Senate, and his State may well be proud 
of the rank he held and the record he left behind him. In his pri- 
vate life he was kind, generous, and noble; courteous and dignified 
in his bearing, seldom offensive, and with a temperament and courage 
that brooked no insult from others; yet— 

" His life was gende, and the elements 
So mixed in him, th.it Nature might stand up 
And say to all the world, 'This was a man.' " 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GARRETT DAVIS. 



47 



He di^d among his friends, and his ashes repose in the bosom of 
his loved Kentucky. The last sad rites have there been held. This 
is the closing scene. His history is now finished, and shows us much 
to admire, much to emulate; some things, perhaps, to condemn. 
Frailty is human. The lives of all are checkered with error. Not 
many of us will leave so few clouds on our escutcheon. He has 
fulfilled his mission and accomplished his destiny. 

"Why weep ye, then, for him, who, having run 
The bound of man's appointed years, at last, 
Life's blessings all enjoyed, life's labors done, 

Serenely to his final rest has passed; 
Wliile the soft memory of his virtues yet 
Lingers like twilight hues when the bright sun has set? " 

Mr. Speaker, I offer the following resolutions, and move their 
adoption : 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has learned with feelings of profound 
regret that the Hon. Garrett Davis, late a Senator in the Congress 
of the United States from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, departed 
this life at his residence near Paris, in that State, on the 2 2d of Sep- 
tember, 1872, during the recess of this body. 

Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Davis this country lias lost a 
citizen eminent for his public and private virtues, a statesman of the 
purest patriotism, a Senator of ability and worth, and that his death 
is deplored by the whole country. 

Resolved, That, as a testimony of our respect for the memory of the 
deceased, the members and officers of the House will wear the usual 
badge of mourning for thirty days. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect for his memory, the 
House do now adjourn. 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 

And accordingly (at four o'clock and twenty minutes p. m.) the 
House adjourned. 



aiAY 7 i902 



^ Ebi'ss +?) 



